


Inktober 2019

by Queen_of_the_Crows



Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avvar, Avvar Hawke (Dragon Age), F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-11-10 14:51:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 20,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20853584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_of_the_Crows/pseuds/Queen_of_the_Crows
Summary: I can't draw but like the Inktober prompts so im writing little blurbs with my romances instead. If any of my characters interest you, I've probably written other stuff about them. I've got a huge fic going about Mirra and Jon called Forged in Ice.





	1. DAY 1: Ring

"Have you seen Mina?" Alistair asked of Clea Mahariel interrupting a training session between her and Zevran in the courtyard of Arl Eamon's Denerim estate.  
Clea rolled her eyes as she came to a halt and sheathed her daggers behind her back, wiping the sweat from her brow and pushing a strand of ebony hair behind her pointed ear from where it had fallen loss of her bun. "You seem a bit nervous lover boy." She teased bringing a blush to Alistair's cheeks and a laugh from Zevran.  
"Its just important that I find her is all."  
"Is it about that proposal at the lands meet my friend?" Zevran asked moving forward to stand beside Clea.  
Alistair's blush deepened. "Maybe. But I need to see her first, not the two of you."  
The pair of assassins laughed. "Last I saw her, she was in the library with Morrigan." Clea finally told him. "Go get her." Her weapons were once again out as she turned on her heel and fell right back into training steps as if the interruption never happened.  
Alistair watched a moment, always surprised and impressed by the speed they were capable of, before he mounted the steps back into the castle and headed to the library where he was thankful to find Mina alone and not with Morrigan as Clea had said.  
"My dear?" He asked tentatively so as not to alarm her from where she read at a large table.  
Mina looked up and smiled as he took a seat beside her.  
"I got you something." He said as he pulled a small silk pouch from his tunic and handed it to her.  
"What is it?" Mina fingered the small pouch trying to guess before pulling the drawstrings and dumping the contents into her palm  
"Alistair its beautiful!" She exclaimed looking at the ring she now held in her hand. It was delicate, the band shaped like the stem of a rose complete with small carvings of thorns and leaves. Instead of a gemstone, the head of the rose dominated it instead, as if the flower itself had been shrunk and cast in rose gold.  
"I know that technically you proposed at the landsmeet by saying we would rule together but I wanted to make it official. I had this made for you, just like the first rose I saw."  
"Its perfect." Mina slid the ring onto her finger. "Thank you." She closed the small distance between them and kissed him, the ring almost glowing in the fire light.


	2. DAY 2: Mindless

"Needless slaughter." Fenris scoffed as he looked down at the frozen pit in front of him full of mutilated corpses.  
Thea Hawke stood beside him her crimson armor a stark contrast against the white of the snow, almost seeming wrong in the presence of the red lyrium. She shuddered as she too looked into the pit. "I thought the rest of the red lyrium was destroyed with the knight commander."  
"According to Varric, that was all there was." Amara Lavellan commented as she joined the pair. Thea had been with the Inquistion since they arrived at Skyhold but Fenris had just arrived a few days ago after recieving word of where his beloved was and that she had survived the Fade, now they couldn't be parted.   
"They're mining it, from people?!" Fenris's voice was usually cold but now also held a note of disgust he usually only had in regards to slavers and magisters.  
"That's what we discovered once we started exploring the Emprise du Lion." Amara explained. "The leader of Sarneia sold her people to the Red Templars to work the mines for them. She didn't know they would be the ones being mined."  
"That isn't an excuse. The Red Templars are bad news, turning your back on their actions and feigning ignorance doesn't make you innocent." Thea crossed her arms and moved away from the pit unable to look the poor souls any longer. She and Fenris had been hunting slavers for the past couple years between the Kirkwall Rebellion and her arrival at Skyhold but nothing they saw in those times compared to what lay in front of them now.  
"I know. She awaits judgement in the dungeons of Skyhold." Amara remarked coldly, her green eyes far off.   
"The only punishment for this is the headman's ax." Fenris too moved away from the pit and started to head away from the mines. Thea caught his eye and saw the unspoken comment there that it was really his fist through the woman's heart that was deserved but he would settle for the Inquistor's judgement instead. This was not Kirkwall and Hawke's judgement didn't rule here. "The Red Templars are mindless lackeys to something they cannot understand. They're no better than darkspawn."  
As if on cue, a behemoth emerged from deeper into the mines followed by various other Red Templars in varying states of consumption from the red lyrium.   
"And here I was starting to get a little bored." Thea smirked and pulled her quarter staff from the holster on her back. A very wicked looking weapon with two long and jagged blades at the ends, curved slightly for maximum damage. Blade of the Hawke it was unceremoniously called as it was the key used by her ancestor to bind Corypheus in his prison. The entire thing crackled with power that could also be felt when one was close enough as she wielded it. The rune a gift from Sandal, no one was quite sure exactly what it did. She spun the staff with expert ease before taking off and leaping at the closest templar in her proximity. She landed on the other side of him and he turned to face her, his head simply slid from his body and landed with a soft plop into the snow.   
Fenris couldn't help but smile sometimes when he watched her fight, that deadly speed and grace, she was truly fearsome. His lyrium tattoos glowed their terrifying blue as he blinked out of existance and appeared several feet away, his Blade of Mercy in another templars chest. Amara too had joined the frey, her twin blades moving with the lightning fast precision.   
It wasn't long before they had felled them all and not even taken a scratch themselves, the behemoth felled by Amara who took a running leap into Thea's hands and vaulted onto its back, plunging both blades deep into its neck. She tumbled off his fell and came to stand in front of the scene feeling quite satisfied.   
"Dull, mindless creatures. They know nothing but bloodshed and aren't even good at it." Fenris shook as his head.  
"And I was thinking they would present a challenge for me." Thea laughed.


	3. DAY 3: Bait

"Do you really think this is wise?" Zevran whispered to Clea where they crouched in the shadows of a mansion roof deep in Antiva City.   
"I never said it was wise, but with no other way to lure out the remaining leadership in the Crows it's all we've got right now." Clea's voice was almost lost on the breeze ruffling both of their black hoods obscuring their faces.  
"We had better hope that their need for vengeance against me outweighs their sense of self preservation." Zevran mused.  
Clea smirked. "That's why you're the bait. They've been hunting you since the Blight. They won't be able to resist having you back in their own territory."   
"True enough." Zevran's eyes returned to the alley they had been eyeing off the side of the mansion, almost hidden behind a large hedge that made them both wonder if it was by design.   
Zara signaled them from a roof across the way that someone was headed their direction. Clea's eyes quickly found the movement in the darkness, her Dalish hunter instincts never abandoning her. "4 of them. All armed. That's almost insulting."  
"The power balance is shifting to us. The Crows know who to follow." Zevran told her. The Antivan Crows would follow whoever lead them and pulled the strings and they were constantly aware of who that was and no longer did it belong to a council of assassins. Zara was one of the first to join them and had proven invaluable in giving them useful information about the Crows until they gained a larger foothold in their coup. Now these 4 in front of them should be the final pieces that needed to be removed before the Crows belonged to them.   
"Here we go." Clea said pulling an ebony long bow from her back and notching an arrow, Zevran doing the same as well as Zara on the other end. All 3 let lose with flawless precision, the arrows finding their marks in the the heads of 3 of the Crows which were left unprotected by armor. They were all under the impression that Zevran was still blocks away and that intel from inside the order was good, but it of course was planted. Before the 4th could react, Clea leaped from the roof onto the final man's shoulders and flipped him behind her where Zevran was waiting, with his dagger pointed directly at the man's throat, Zara ready on a closer roof corner with another arrow.   
"Zevran!" The man chocked out as Clea threw back their captives hood and he could see who now stood in front of him. "You're The Ghost?!"   
"I'm the Black Shadow, same as i always was."  
"I'm The Ghost." Clea ran one of her daggers down the man's ear and made him shudder. "And your council's rein of the Crows is over. It belongs to us now."  
"If you let me live, its all yours."   
"It's all ours anyway. Thanks for coming for me, you should have known better." Zevran shoved his blade into the man's throat allowing the body to drop to the cobblestones.  
"Congratulations. The Crows will be much better off in your hands." Zara jumped down to stand with them, stepping back to avoid getting blood on her boots. "Shall we go inspect your new domain?"  
The pair of assassins gave her wicked grin and gestured for her to lead the way.


	4. DAY 4: Freeze

"It seems every day that passes, it gets noticeably colder." Mirra stood atop the Wall looking out over the expanse of the forest beyond. As if in answer, the harsh winds of the north wiped around her sending her long black hair swirling away.  
"Gives us a reason to stay in bed longer." Jon teased as he put his arms around her and kissed her neck, his breath warming her exposed skin.   
Mirra smiled at him, glad that they were alone on this section of the wall. Despite the fact that Jon's death and resurrection freed him from the Night's Watch, they still performed their private moments. She turned in his arms and wrapped her own around his neck leaning in and kissing him. They stayed like that for much longer than was proper, their cheeks flushed when they pulled apart and not from the cold.   
"It will be slightly warmer once we get back to Winterfell and Highever." Mirra mused.  
Jon kissed her forehead. "We will have much more on our minds than the cold at that time love." Jon looked behind her to the wildness beyond, his eyes almost glazed over as he thought to the war ahead of them. "I'm almost reluctant to leave this behind. The freedom to be with you as I wish, I mean."   
"You still can be." She ran her gloved hand across his cheek before resting it against his chest.  
"We have to be much more careful, I won't put you at risk. And a bastard can't be with a noble lady."  
"I don't care what you are Jon. I love you."  
"I love you too Mirra."  
"My lord, my lady!" One of the Theirin soldiers yelled as he exited the lift and very carefully ran towards them. "They need you below, something has happened."  
Jon and Mirra pulled apart and hurried to the lift which seemed agonizingly slow when someone was in a hurry.  
"What happened?" Jon asked of Ed as the lift finally stopped and they came face to face with the new Lord Commander.  
"We have received news from Lord Stannis." Ed passed the scroll to Jon unable to speak the news himself.  
"Stannis is dead. The army destroyed." Jon couldn't quite believe it as his eyes scanned the document again and again, Mirra reading from his right. "It seems that Ramsey Bolton was more formidable than he thought."  
"If he didn't take Winterfell, then we have no home to go to." Mirra said pulling her hood up almost against the news.   
"We have Highever." Jon told her, "Your family."  
Mirra nodded. "To Highever then, we regroup from there."  
"Stannis failed because the Lord of Light was no longer with him." Melisandre said cryptically from where she stood in a nearby corridor, out of place in her red gown. "He has found a new champion." Her crimson eyes turning to Jon.  
"I serve the Old Gods my lady." Jon told her as she joined them.  
"Maybe so but the Lord of Light has his own plans for you Jon Snow. You won't fail to take back your home. It's where everything starts." She wouldn't elaborate more. "We have to end this frozen night before it begins and you are the key."  
Jon shivered at her words, something he felt deep in his bones. Mirra took his arm to ground him, noticing the look in his eyes.  
"You wish to take back your home, I will join you. You need my aid and my flames to combat the cold."  
Both Jon and Mirra knew that she wasn't simply talking about the coming winter.


	5. DAY 5: Build

"Quite the feat you've done." Nyssa came up beside her sister Amara where she stood on Skyhold's main steps looking out at the training of the new recruits currently being supervised by Cullen.  
Amara turned at the disturbance with a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean?"   
"As if you don't know." Nyssa stuck out her hip, swishing the Keeper robes that she still wore despite being at Skyhold and not with their clan. "This Inquisition. Built from nothing into this." She spun around flinging her arms wide. "This keep is massive, it rivals anything I've ever seen and the army, the alliances. It would have been a feat for anyone but a Dalish elf sister?! Our people have never been followed thus before, not since the days of immortality." Her light voice was wistful thinking back to what she never knew. Nyssa herself was closer to the heritage of the ancient elves than her younger sister in the sense that magic flowed through her veins and she sometimes wondered if that was what made her feel the way she did.   
"You sound like Solas." Amara laughed, her eyes on Cullen again.  
"Solas is wiser than he should be in most things. My point still stands though, this is incredible."  
"You act as if this was all my doing, Nyssa." Amara said, her modesty real. She was quite confident in her abilities on a battlefield or hunting ground but not at all in her ability to lead not just an army but an entire organization. "We've all done this. Cassandra and Leliana started it. Cullen leads its armies and we wouldn't even have any allies if it wasn't for Josephine."  
"And all of that would have been crushed at Haven were it not for you, the entirety of Thedas under Corypheus's rule if it still existed after he once again stormed the Fade. It's true that I never saw Haven, never found you until after but you deserve the title of Inquisitor. It's you and your banner that everyone flocks to." The mage's large eyes sparked with the electricity that ran through her veins.  
"She is right my lady." Leliana emerged from the large hall behind them hearing their words. "Any of us technically could have run this Inquisition, there for a time we all did. But it wasn't until you were dropped from the fade and really wanted to help us that we became a real inquisition people could truly believe in. We had someone, they could believe in."   
"But I'm not the Herald of Andraste." She felt like she had said it a million times since getting the anchor and waking in that jail cell.  
"Maybe not. But you don't have to be for them to believe in the things you've done. Maybe you were sent by Mythal or some other of your gods or maybe it was Andraste or maybe it was no one and you just got lucky or we did. Whatever the reason you came to us, you are who the people choose to follow and they believe in the things that you've done. We may have started this Inquisition, but you're the one who truly built it into a force to shake the world." Leliana laid her hand on Amara's shoulder. "Don't forget that." She moved around them and down the stairs on one mission or other as she was always busy.  
"She's right. This is all you." Again Nyssa spun her gesture, her hand resting pointing to a scaffolding where various workers were still working to repair one of the remaining towers that was still damaged from so long ago fight. "Literally and figuratively, you did this. You've always been the one better at creating." As if to illustrate her point, Nyssa arched lightning between her fingertips, the sparks making audible cracking noises. "Destruction has always been what I'm better at, but not you. Own what you've made dear sister, i do." She smiled to Amara before she too made her way down the stairs leaving the Inquisitor to think about she'd made and bask in it for a time while she still could.


	6. DAY 6: Husky

Blackwall, no correction, Thom Rainer sat off to the side of the camp just sharpening his longsword on a whetstone. This was the first time he'd gone out with the party since being pardoned by the Inquisitor, an action that he still wished she hadn't done even though he was grateful for her mercy. He could feel eyes on him and when he looked up, the inquistion soldiers who had been watching them quickly looked away ashamed. Nyssa looked over to him and her large turquoise eyes were extremely sad. She stood abruptly from where she was talking to Cassandra and Dorian and came over to him, a bowl of soup in her hand.   
"You can join us you know." She sat gracefully beside him and passed him the bowl once he set his sword down.  
"They don't want me over there love." He said gruffly.  
"I do."  
"That's because you love me. They don't"   
"They'll come around." She rested her head on his shoulder for a moment before he started eating his soup. Most of the soldiers had really liked the large husky man before it came out who he really was and what he had done. Now they were split half and half almost on those who understood and felt he had redeemed himself by coming forward and those who thought that Inquisitor Amara was wrong to parden him and should have left him to hang. None of them would speak of it in front of the lady herself and few would speak of it in front of Nyssa either, at least those who knew her connection to the man and with a surname of Lavellan that she was also the Inquisitor's sister, older sister at that.   
"Your faith in people does you credit."  
"I just believe that they'll see what i see." Her eyes sparkled, almost purple around the edges, just like her lightning. "I want to show you something." She stood and offered her hand which he took with no complaint once he sheathed his sword. Nyssa was full of surprises and it was usually best to go along with what he wanted. She lead him away from the main camp and down the hill to the valley below where several soldiers were training among themselves, some of them were eating.  
"Why are we here?" He looked around confused but most of the men paid him no mind.   
"Most of them don't even know you are besides good on the battlefield. Blackwall, Rainer, neither name matters to them. They want to learn from you."  
"You mean that?"   
"Ask them yourself." Nyssa stepped aside and swung her arm forward where the soldiers had noticed their entrance into their camp.  
"Thank you. I needed this."  
She kissed a cheek, letting a small spark jump from her lips. "I know."


	7. DAY 7: Enchantment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This has been my favorite one to write so far

Thea Hawke ran her slender fingers along the rivers of blue embedded in the skin. Surprisingly the lyrium matched the temperature of the surrounding skin and only felt slightly different, almost electric but not quite. She felt the muscles clench at her touch, unused to something gentle and the sensation of another being touching the unnatural markings grafted into the skin.  
"Thea." Fenris breathed her name as she traced the line up his arm and over his shoulder. He had started using her first name instead of referring to her simply as Hawke as the others did several months ago one night when he kissed her for the first time. 3 years he spent wondering what it would be like to kiss her and hold her in his arms and then one night when she came to visit and share his wine he had done it, in the middle of their conversation he knew couldn't resist the passionate way she talked with her hands and the way her smile always reached her bright blue eyes and made them come alive. He closed the distance between them where she sat on his couch and he perched on the coffee table and put his hands to her cheeks and kissed her before he could think twice. She melted into him, her lips as warm to his as the wine was to his stomach. He lost track of how long they stayed that way, almost as if time had stood still, until he finally pulled away, not really wanting to but knowing that he should. The soft blush on her cheeks was made more prominent by the pure white of her hair, a strange brush with magic she had told him that had turned her mocha hair white as snow. Fenris had always suspected that the lyrium in his skin was what changed his own from black as night to its opposite.   
"Where did you go just now?" Thea's voice pulled him back from that night months ago to where he was now, sitting before the fire in her bedroom in only his tunic and pants, no armor to hide behind not with her.  
"I was thinking back to when I first kissed you." His green eyes starred into the fire as he smiled, a rare sight to see on his face although she was becoming accustomed to when they were in private.  
"Oh yeah?" She sat back down beside him cross legged on the bed and passed him the bottle of wine she retrieved from the desk. "What about it?"  
"That you enchanted me from the moment you walked into my life." He tentatively brushed his fingertips across the apple of her cheek before he kissed her again, much like that first night. He kissed her with a need that she hadn't felt in him before, maybe that he didn't even know he had until this moment. It was as if she was air and he was drowning and maybe he had been, all those years until she came along and offered her hand.   
Fenris pulled away from her after much too short a time, his hand still lingering on her cheek. "I don't know how to do this with you Thea. I don't know how to be what you need or even what you deserve. And more than anything I don't want to hurt you."  
Thea took his free hand and held it, her face deadly serious. "I don't need you to be anything other than what you are and as for deserving i don't want to hear another word about that. There is no such thing as not deserving someone if you care for them. I trust you Fenris. I trust that you won't hurt me and even if you do, every moment with you will have made it worth it." Her thumb traced another lyrium line on the back of his hand. "You don't even have to match my love for you, if you love me at all that's enough for me."  
His eyes widen. "Thea Hawke, I've loved you for years. It just took me much too long to realize what it meant."  
"What does it mean?" Her heart was pounding hard enough that she was certain he would hear it."  
"That nothing could be worse than the thought of living without you." He squeezed her hand gently. "It might be hard to be with me,"  
"I don't care. You're the only one I want to be with, even if it's hard. I love you too and I'm here for you, for this, through everything especially the bad. You have me always, I'm yours Fenris."  
"And I'm yours."   
She threw herself into his arms not even caring when the wine bottle slipped to the floor and dumped the remainder of it's contents onto her rug. "Stay here with me tonight." She pushed lightly against his chest until he laid down with his head on one of her pillows pulling her with him. Thea rested her head against his chest and the crook of his shoulder.  
"As if I would want to go home to a rundown mansion we killed a bunch of people in when I could stay here in your bed." He kissed her head. "Get some sleep love, I'm not going anywhere."   
And it was the first peaceful sleep that either of them had had in years, neither plagued by the nightmares or fits of wakefulness that they usually found in the night.


	8. DAY 8: Frail

Thea's heart shattered. It was the only part of her that could be considered fragile or frail or breakable. Until now though, she never knew it could feel so completely as if her heart had been torn from her chest. Ironic really since it was Fenris that made her feel as she did, his signature move of phasing a hand through someone's chest and literally ripping out there heart. She hadn't moved from the heap she crumbled into on the floor by the fireplace when he left her. The heat from the fire doing nothing to warm her insides where it felt her blood was like ice. Lucifer had curled up beside her trying to offer some sort of comfort but it gave her none.   
Fenris had left her. The first time he ever truly shared her bed beyond sleeping. He panicked afterward, stood where she was sitting now and stared into the fire for a long time. She noticed that he had taken the red satin ribbon she used to tie her robe and wrapped it around his wrist. "Thea, I can't do this. I thought I could but I can't. All of this brought up memories I didn't even know I had of things i don't even know. I'm sorry, but I just, I can't." His voice broke as he spoke and he turned quickly on his heel and left her room with only one sad glance at her where she still sat naked on the rumpled bed.   
It wasn't until she heart the front door close that she allowed herself to breakdown. She managed to pull on her robe even though it wouldn't close now and moved to the rug before the fireplace, the fur soft on her bare legs but she didn't even notice. Once the choked sobbing started, Lucifer came to investigate, nudging her lightly with his huge head. When she didn't respond he simply laid beside her, offering the only comfort that he could.   
"Oh Lucifer, I don't understand." She could taste salt on her lips as she spoke. The mabari looked her with his large brown eyes, they were full of understanding even though he couldn't speak to her. "I know that the things he's been through are horrible and i can't even imagine but i thought this was different. I thought that i was different and helping him."  
Lucifer laid his head in her lap. Thea had probably never been more torn between wanting to be alone and wanting a friend to talk to.   
"I can't just sit here. Not in this room, not tonight." She stood and dropped the robe to the floor. She quickly dressed in her leathers and strapped her daggers to over her shoulders before abruptly leaving the room and pulling her large hood over her head as she left the estate and headed for Lowtown.   
She was surprised to reach the bar without being hounded by bandits and gangs at night like usual, although tonight she would have welcomed having something to kill. The Hanged Man was full as usual, didn't matter what day it was people always needed an escape from their lives in the slums. She took a stool at the far corner of the bar and dropped her hood.   
"Whiskey neat." The barkeep starting to walk away when she called him back. "Make it a double."  
"Hard stuff tonight is it?" Isabela slammed a mug down beside her and elbowed a sailor to her left to move over.  
"I deserve it tonight. And no, I don't really want to talk about it."   
"Trouble in paradise?"   
The bartender set down a mug in front of Thea and moved quickly to serve another guest.  
"I said drop it Is. Not tonight." Thea just sounded tired and sad, not even really angry. Her broken heart took all her energy away.  
"Want me to kick his ass?" She gave a wicked smile as she took a long swig of what Thea assumed was some sort of ale.   
"Maybe. But not tonight. Your company is welcome though."  
"Just say the word kitten and I'll gladly turn him to ribbons." She briefly rested her head on Hawke's shoulder in a consoling gesture that wasn't quite like her before lifting it again and signaling for another round. "I'll drink with you as long as you need." She finished off her ale as Thea Hawke doubled her whiskey in one swift move, enjoying the warm in her gut and finally starting to feel the ice in her blood melt even if only for a short while.


	9. DAY 9: Swing

The large heavy rope felt rough against her skin as she circled the swing. It was nothing extravagant, just a simple smoothed out plank of wood and two large ropes that anchored it to the tree, the canopy giving it shade from the sun. She had asked Blackwall to build it for her shortly after pardoning him. She could see that he was anxious and restless feeling that everyone disliked him, he always tried to just keep himself busy. Amara sat down on the swing, her bare feet brushing the ground, well her toes away. She twisted slowly in a circle, glad that the garden was fairly empty today. She also considered that it could just be her demeanor at the moment. Nyssa always called it her danger face. Nyssa. She was the one more suited to being Inquisitor, leading people. But she hadn't been at the conclave when it exploded, while it was important, it was still considered to be human affairs and not worth sending the Keeper's first to spy so instead they sent Amara, the best hunter in the clan which they figured also made her their best spy and they weren't wrong. Nyssa wasn't sent to investigate until word of Haven's destruction reached the Dalish ears along with the miraculous story of the Herald's survival. Not only did they need to know if Amara lived, they also had to know if what they heard of the attack and the archdemon were true. Nyssa had found Skyhold just as others who flocked to their banner had, she had written back to the Keeper confirming all they heard and more and declaring that she wouldn't return until Corypheus was dealt with.   
Amara sighed. She didnt regret being Inquisitor but there were times she wished it been Nyssa. While her older sister was more impulsive and carefree, she knew more about leading people, running things, making hard decisions, and was also more outgoing while Amara tended to lean more on the quiet side which made it harder for people to know her. She thought that was a part of why it was Cullen that she fell for.  
She lifted her feet off the ground just enough for the rope to untwist and spin her around until it was straight again. She had the swing built in the first place so she had somewhere peaceful to escape to when being Inquistor became too much or she had too much on her mind which was often. Cullen was her escape also, she was just her when she was with him, nothing more but when she just wanted to think she couldn't be around anyone.   
"I used to do that too you know." Amara looked up to see Mina Theirin, Queen of Fereldan standing before her.   
"You had time to swing during the Blight?" Amara asked confused, thankfully the Blight had never reached her clan in the Free Marches but all of what she heard of the Blight didn't seem to leave much room for leisure.  
"Not during the blight, months after it ended and Alistair and I had a kingdom to rebuild and run after we were married. Neither of us had ever ruled anything. I had an older brother that inherited my father's lands and castle and Alistair was just a grey warden. We spent more time than not being overwhelmed those first couple years."  
"What did you do?"  
"Honestly? I cried alot, not because I was sad but because I felt like I was a bad queen and wasn't doing things correctly or doing enough. I spent alot of time in the palace gardens thinking, trying to calm myself. I wrote to my brother quite often as he also had his own lands to run. Arl Eamon stayed in Denerim to help teach us what to do and how to rule and help us rebuild not just the city itself but everything the Blight ravaged. If it wasn't for him, we might still be lost. Him and Clea as well. When the Darkspawn organized in the north of the country, I was asked to be the Warden Commander, go to Amaranthein and put them down, rebuild the order from nothing. Clea offered to go in my place so I could stay in Denerim where I was needed to be queen. Zevran stayed with us from a bit while she was gone, helping us as Leliana helps you, as spymaster. We relied on the help of others around us. That's how we came to be confident in our rule." Mina took a seat at the base of the tree while she spoke. Amara still found it strange to think of the queen as a normal person even though at heart she and Alistair are both warriors and neither of them look the part of their regal selves while at Skyhold. Well beyond the masquerade ball and other times that Josephine needed them to help with dignitaries. Seeing her sit on the ground was bizarre.  
"There is just so much on my shoulders and so many people who need me to succeed."  
"All of Thedas." Mina saw Amara's face slightly pale even though it was something she knew but hated to be reminded of. "But you're not alone. Alistair and I came not just because of the threat of Corypheaus but to help you as others helped us. Cullen is experienced in battle and ruling armies, there is no one better than Josephine with alliances and Leliana knows everything. Clea and Zevran came with their own connections and the Crows at their back. Thea and Fenris just seem to follow wherever evil needs to be killed but she knows quite a bit about the threat and the red lyrium. And your sister, Nyssa, she would never let you feel alone. I've been exactly where you are, you're not alone. Not ever."  
"Thank you. I did need to hear that."  
"I'll leave you to your thoughts but when I saw your face looking much like mine used to, I knew you needed to hear that." Mina stood again and smiled her heart melting smile before she brushed the dirt from her pants and walked away back into the keep itself.  
Amara twisted the swing around and around again but this time when she released it, her soul felt lighter.


	10. DAY 10: Pattern

"This is so much better than those horrible suits they're having the soldiers wear!" Clea exclaimed as she ran her hand along the black dress hanging from the wardrobe in her and Zevran's chambers inside Skyhold.   
"You know, it will also look much better on the floor." Zevran purred coming up behind her and put his lips against the pulse point on her neck, his hands coming around to caress her breasts before roaming lower, taunting her.  
"Again lover? They will skin us alive if we make them wait to head to the Winter Palace."  
"Let them wait." He bit her, just the way she liked and slid a finger inside of her where he was pleased to find that she was already very wet. "You know you want me."   
"So fuck me then." Clea leaned into him and ran her hand backwards down his bare thigh before she found what she was seeking, around ready to go.   
"Always." Zevran picked her up and pushed into her while she wrapped her legs around his waist and he took her just like that, against the wall.   
By the time they managed to untangle from each other and begin to dress for the ball, a messenger had already been sent from them and was shoed away from the door in strained and breathless tones and no one else came looking for them.  
"A dress made from a true Crow queen." Zevran admired as Clea finished her hair and spun to look at him. The dress was so black, it was as if spun by magic. It hugged her body like a glove down to her upper thigh where it then flowed out to reach the floor and give her a slight train as if she walked on the night sky. The shoulders of the dress were covered in long ebony feathers that shone iridescent in the light when she moved. The entire back of the dress was cut out to the small of her back and an ornate obsidian sword ran the length on the space from her shoulder blades to her lower back. It was anchored to the sides of dress by delicate tendrils of fabric that were much stronger than they appeared when the sword design was not sharp or real and more jeweltry than anything. She didn't know how the designers at done it but the feathers at her shoulders seemed to almost reach around to grip the hilt of the sword but only giving the briefest touch. The neckline was low as befitted her style and cut out of the dress before it rejoined at her throat to give a choker like appearance. Where the feathers brushed and laid against her upper arms reminded her of who she was. She was queen of the Antivan Crows and her king stood before looking just as dashing in a tuxedo that perfecting matched her dress with the magic black and the feathers.  
"You will be the envy of every woman in Orlais and I the envy of every man by having you on my arm." Zevran smiled as she leaned in and kissed him before taking his arm and doing a turn around the room for no one at all.   
"Josphine will have no idea what to do with us." Clea smiled mischievously at the thought. She allowed herself another glance in the mirror, her long black hair loosely curled and hanging over her right shoulder where she anchored it with a large metal crow shaped pin against her neck, her bright eyes made ever more vibrant by the kohl she traced around them and her lips painted a steely grey to match the sword at her back. This, she thought, is what the heads of assassin's guild should look like. "We shouldn't keep them waiting for us any longer." She sighed as she threw their door open and headed down the stairs.


	11. DAY 11: Snow

The red leaves of the heart tree stood out in brilliant contrast against the snow that formed a soft blanket over the grounds around it. The hot springs that Winterfell was built over, steaming in the cold and never freezing, never dropping below a comfortable bath temperature. Mina ran her hand over the white bark of the tree, it felt good to be near a weirwood again, to feel close to her gods. She took a deep breath of the winter air as a soft wind blew through the courtyard. Ghost brushed his large head against her free hand as he came up behind her silent as his namesake.   
"It must feel good for you to be home again." She scratched behind his ears. "Although I suppose the wall was as much your home as Winterfell ever was wasn't it?"   
The direwolf cocked his head at her as if to answer her question when Sansa found the two of them at the tree.  
"What are you doing out here? And in your wedding gown no less!" Sansa quickly scolded her despite being 3 years her younger.   
"I've been ready. I just saw the snow falling and wanted to take a walk while everyone prepared." Mirra did indeed look every bit the bride in her long white gown and shimmering sleeves and white fur wrap to keep her warm. Her long black hair was done up in an elegant waterfall braid that wrapped around her head and the long parts were loosely curled and hung down over her shoulder. Sansa had actually helped her mother and her handmaids to do Mirra's hair, knowing she'd never really get a chance to do it for Arya.  
"You look beautiful." Sansa moved closer to the tree and held the older woman's hands. "Jon won't know what to do when he sees you. But we have to get you back inside before anyone sees you before it's time."   
Mirra nodded and they both headed back the way they had come with with Ghost at their heels.   
It was another couple hours before Mirra saw the courtyard again and this time it was full of lords and ladies and friends and families all standing around the large heart tree leaving a large aisle down the center from the enterance to the tree. Jon stood at the end with a maester and Ghost sitting at his side. He looked so elegant in his highborn finery with his father's direwolf sigil proudly displayed on his chest, his hair pulled back much the same way that Ned Stark used to wear his. Sansa stood not far off with a smile when she saw Jon's face at Mirra's enterance, the pure love that shown there when he looked at in her wedding gown while her father walked beside her, she wore the blue and black cloak of house Theirin around her shoulders.   
When they reached the end of the aisle, Lord Matthew hugged his daughter and placed her hands in Jon's with a kiss on her cheek.   
The ceremony was lovely and Jon and Mirra had each elected to saw some of their own vows to each other. They were soon pronounced husband and wife and when Jon released the clasp from her father's cloak, he was there ready to take it back. Jon put the white and grey cloak of his own house around her shoulders and laid a gentle hand on her cheek when he leaned in to kiss her and claim her as his wife. She laid her hand upon his chest and kissed him almost as if she never had before, like it was the first time and in a way it was.   
"I present Lord and Lady Stark, the king and queen of the North." The maester declared proudly as they turned toward their audience hand in hand and smiled. As if in answer to the new rulers of the land, a soft snow began to fall to herald in a new age.


	12. DAY 12: Dragon

"You know that Qunari have dragon blood in our veins." Iron Bull said casually from where a group of them sat perched on a cliff side, legs dangling off the sides while they drank from tankards of ale watching a high dragon try to corral its young in the valley far below them, oblivious to their presence.   
"There's no way." Zevran said with a laugh finishing off his ale and leaning back to pour some more.   
"Look at that thing!" Clea exclaimed flinging her arm out into the open air and sloshing ale over her wrist.  
"Exactly! Why do you think Qunari are so large and have horns." Bull didn't pose it as a question but laughed heartily instead. "Somewhere way back in our history, some drunken soul saw a dragon and said 'im gonna fuck the shit out of that'."   
That made everybody roar with laughter, a few grabbing the edge of the cliff to keep on the topside of it.   
"And how pray tell would one go about fucking a dragon?" Zevran asked with his mug replenished and his green eyes on the very real dragon.  
"Very very carefully." Bull took a long pull of his own ale and clapped the elf on the shoulder. "I wouldn't recommend it."  
"Oh he's got his own dragon to handle in bed already." Clea nipped her husband's ear and stretched her legs to regain the proper blood flow.  
"What would the lady inquisitor do to know we're spending our scouting mission sitting on a ledge drinking ale and talking about fucking dragons?" Nyssa teased as she sauntered up to the group with her own empty mug.  
"We scouted." Krem piped up. "There are no enemies about save this dragon but she's minding her own business so we decided to admire her." He took the mug from Nyssa and filled it up before passing it back   
"What are you guys doing here?" She said as she took her seat beside Clea and looked them over. "Josephine had been hoping to brief you again about what is expected in Halamsharal."  
"That's exactly why we're out here my friend. We've been to our fair share of fancy Orlaisian parties and know how to play the game already. The lady ambassador is worried over the wrong people." Zevran doing his best to imitate an Orlaisian accent.   
"I think that the king and queen of the Antivan Crows know how to deal with stuffy nobles just fine." Iron Bull clinked his mug against Zevran's in comrady before they each took a drink.  
"Shouldn't you also be briefed on the winter palace ediquette?" Clea teased the other dark haired elf.  
"Why do you think I also chose to be absent from Skyhold?" Nyssa laughed and took a drink. "Not being Inquisitor has many perks after all. No one cares much when you come and go." She moved her hand like a wave as she said the last part.   
"Like a ghost." Clea used the name that the Crows called her. The Ghost.  
"That dragon skin would make some damn fine armor." Iron Bull said suddenly, causing the Chargers and the rest gathered to turn and look at him.  
The assassins' grins turned wicked. "So now you want to fight it do you?"  
"After you've been drinking chief?" Krem asked although not quite as a question and more a statement.  
"The danger makes it more fun." Bull stood up and took some practice swings with his great axe.  
Lightning sparked in Nyssa's eyes and danced between her fingertips. "Let's go then, I'm wondering how a bit of lightning will taste to a high dragon."  
"You are speaking my language! Chargers! Let's move out!"


	13. DAY 13: Ash

Thea Hawke stood on the balcony of the Viscount's Keep with Fenris at her side, his hand resting over hers on the railing. "No one has held this office for 3 years, not really. Not since that mess with the arishok."  
"Not for lack of trying on Knight Commander Meredith's part."   
"This office is cursed. The Viscount dead. Meredith turned into solid lyrium." A chill ran down her spine that she couldn't quite shake off. Thea tried not to be suspicious but sometimes she couldn't help it.   
Fenris ran his thumb along hers in a small but comforting gesture. "You won't die as long as I'm here."   
"I never doubted that and that's what scares me." Her blue eyes were far away as she looked out across hightown, it hadn't even been safe from the mage and templar fighting. Those Templars that survived and rose her up to the office she now stood in had done the best they could going about extinguishing fires but there was some that still raged, especially in the warehouse district and the smoke could be seen all across Kirkwall. The Gallows themselves were now a ruin and would require complete rebuilding if it was rebuilt at all and Thea didn't think it should be, let it stand in tattered spires and ruins of ash. It had been a symbol of oppression since Tevinter held the city.   
"I want those statues torn down too and the chain dropped forever. I can't stand to look at them." The statues she meant were of course those that held the great chain, those that were meant to be slaves. "We're burning the gallows straight to the ground."  
Fenris squeezed her hand. "You'll make a good viscount love."  
"I doubt it but things will certainly change." Her eyes were drawn to the sounds of fighting below her causing her to draw her hand from her lover's in position to grab her quarterstaff until she saw that it was just some of the city guard training in the yard, always prepared and in shape with Aveline as Guard Captain. Thea didn't know what she would do without that woman.  
Fenris pulled her into his arms and held her close, her head laid against his shoulders and she squeezed him tight. "For now we are safe. Danarius is dead, Meredith is dead, the battle is done." He ran his fingers through her hair. "Put your staff down for a time." It was he who removed the weapon from her and leaned it against the wall behind them.  
"You still carry yours." Thea mused.  
"Not with you." He nodded to the office where his Blade of Mercy lay on her desk.   
"Half of this city probably hates me for what I did."  
"Half of this city is grateful for what you did." His piercing green eyes held hers, causing her to be unable to look away.  
"We killed innocents, at my command."  
"We did what we had to, spared those we could. We never killed anyone who surrendered." His hands now held her face. "You saved this city from a true war."  
"We can hope. Word of what happened here will spread, we can't contain it." A wind picked up off the sea and sent her white hair swirling around her face. The fires still burning caused ash to constantly be stirred up and carried by the sea breeze. A thin layer now covered all of Kirkwall, thicker in some places than others. Even on the sunny days, it still appeared gloomy. Some of the ashes had settled in her hair, turning it a pale grey until she bathed later. Fenris's was much the same. "This is a wound that will never truly heal, not the way that it should."   
"It's like Fereldan after the Blight. The king and queen have done a great job of rebuilding but the scars remain." He tried to brush some of the grey from her cheeks but only succeeded in smearing it.  
Thea grabbed her quarterstaff and retreated inside to escape the wind. She sat down on the couch in front of the fire and felt more than saw Fenris sit down beside her. "I don't want to stay here Fenris. It doesn't feel like home anymore. I'll help get them started on rebuilding and cleaning up but I don't want this office. I want to get away from the city." She sought the comfort of his touch and he took her hand in his interlocking their fingers.  
"Then we'll go. Make a life somewhere else."  
"We should explore for awhile. We saw plenty of Tevinter slavers at work here in Kirkwall. I'm sure there are plenty out there that the world would be better without."  
Fenris gave her a wicked grin that he saved for special occasions. "You always give me more and more reasons to love you." He said with a kiss.


	14. DAY 14: Overgrown

"This place gives me the creeps." Clea shuddered notching an arrow just in case.  
"Aren't all you elves from here?" Oghren said with a slight slur he almost always seemed to have.  
"That's actually insulting. Not all elves are from the forest. Zevran isn't. The Dalish are wanders and we never came to this forest. It feels wrong." Clea said back a little angrily.   
"Clea is right. This place isn't natural." Morrigan stepped over a large gnarled root sticking up from the ground.   
"Damn magic." Oghren spit.   
The Brecillien Forest was an overgrown nightmare. At one point there had been clear and well defined paths but now there were hard to find if you didn't know what you were looking for. They had done a decent job of not getting lost with Clea leading them but they were constantly stepping over things or pushing branches out of their way. They had come across wolves more than they could count and even found a couple graves that probably should not be disturbed ever. It was easy to tell that something was not right with this place all the way down into the earth itself.   
"It's no wonder the werewolves are holed up in here somewhere. No one would ever find them!" Clea loosed an arrow on an ordinary wolf that stalked them from the bushes causing it to whimper slightly before it hit the ground.   
"I think it's more than that." Morrigan mused moving her hand curiously through the air. "I think there is magic here, shielding them from accidental discovery."  
"How can you tell?" Mina asked looking over her shoulder at the witch of the wilds.  
"I can feel the strangeness of it in the air."  
"That crackling?" Alistair said, the hairs on his arms standing up under his armor  
"Yes actually. I'm surprised you can feel that." Morrigan's tone was more surprised than snarky for once.   
"I did train as a templar. I still have their abilities. They just aren't as good without the lyrium."   
"So if they are magically protected how are we supposed to find them?" Clea sighed crossing her arms and leaning against a tree trunk.   
"With a forest this old, there will be a way. The protection magic isn't nearly as old as this forest is." Morrigan said pushing a branch out of her way.   
"Then let's go find it. I'm eager to leave this place." She pushed off the tree and began trudging the path ahead again.


	15. DAY 15: Legend

Mina walked the throne room of the royal palace in Denerim, her royal blue skirts swishing as she walked. She generally didn't wear large elegant gowns and in fact usually hated them but anytime that they had to hold court she always dressed her best as was expected for Fereldan's queen. Alistair already sat upon his throne and smiled when he saw her coming. He looked radiant in his kingly best, fur at his shoulders and his attire a deep red brown that brought out his eyes. "You look beautiful." He said as he took her hand when she sat.  
"And you look incredibly handsome husband." It still felt surreal to her sometimes even though they had been married a couple of years now. "Who is it that we're supposed to be seeing today?"  
"Grey Wardens actually. All the way from Adamant Fortress." Alistair told her still holding her hand while he signed for the doors to be opened for the court. He liked to hold her hand while they sat through court and she liked it too. Not only was it because they really loved each other but it also showed Fereldan how their rulers truly loved each other and presented a united front for their kingdom both in public and in private.  
On cue, the wardens entered the throne room, all clad in their splendid blue and silver armor, a healthy mix of warriors, rogues, and mages. She noticed they were trying to be as professional as their station demanded but still noticed the nerves and excitement in them as they whispered to each other, especially the younger ones.  
"Welcome to Fereldan." Alistair said with a smile. "We're so honored to have you here with us."  
"It's an honor to be here your majesties." Their groups commander spoke as he stopped before them and they all bowed even though the wardens answered to no country.   
"You're a legend your majesty!" One of the younger wardens, a mage spoke up unable to bite her tongue any longer.   
Mina laughed at the outburst and held her hand to calm the commander who was about to chastise her for speaking out of turn. "Thank you, but it wasn't just me. Or even just the two of us." She squeezed her husbands hand. "It was everyone that we recruited, our immediate party and the armies that we built as well, the advice we were given along the way, those that died at Ostagar. It was all of us, I might have dealt the killing blow but without the others we never would have made it up to Fort Drakon."  
"Either way, no way will ever forget your name Queen Mina, I know I never will." The girl's smile was so bright at being spoken to by her personal hero, no one ever thought it would go away.


	16. DAY 16: Wild

Mirra's hair flew around her in an untamed mess of waves. She stood on the deck of yet another ship this time headed to Dragonstone. On her hair sat her own crown, it showed both her beauty and her danger. It was crafted in Winterfell after she and Jon had been married and not only became Lord and Lady Stark but also King and Queen in the North. Her and her husbands crowns were complements, both made of what little obsidian they still had. It was agreed that the symbolism of defeating the Night King was a good one. Jon's crown looked much like Robb's with the crown crafted to look like swords arranged around his head but not too tall to be heavy and cumbersome like Robb's had been. In the front was crafted the Direwolf sigil of their house and Jon wore it proudly with Mirra at his side. Her own crown was much the same but made to more feminine. It too was a circle of swords but they flowed together and the front of hers was too direwolfs, the female protecting her males throat from underneath, that had been a detail she asked for. It was also both her and Sansa's idea that they wear the crowns to meet with this Daenarys Targaryean. She might declare that she was queen of the seven kingdoms and they wouldn't argue that but the north would no longer bow to anyone and that had to be shown.   
The young northern queen adjusted the crown on her head as Jon and Davvos emerged out onto the deck. Jon was still adjusting to being called Lord Stark let alone your grace or your majesty.   
"We approach Dragonstone." Davvos said matter of factly as he drew their attention to the far shore that still appeared as mostly a speak on the horizon but was quickly growing larger.   
Mirra couldn't help it as her eyes scanned the skies for any signs of giant dragons ready to swoop down and eat them, not that she had any idea what she would do if she saw one but it would be nice to see her death coming and she wasn't completely trusting that this Targaryean didn't plan on murdering them or imprisoning them until they agreed to her terms. That's why she left strict orders with Sansa to take over as Queen if she didn't hear back from them in a specified amount of time. Jon didn't think it was necessary but he was also much too trusting.   
"Do you still think it's wise that you approach her this way?" Davvos asked warily as he looked the couple over, looking every bit the northern rulers in their black sword crowns and rich leathers each with a cloak trimmed in furs, Jon wearing the one Sansa had made that was identical to his father's and Mirra wearing a brand new one also made by Sansa for her trimmed in the white and grey furs of a wolf to match her new name and sigil.   
"We have to." Jon said with no room for argument. "She must know that the north will not yield to her will anymore than we would Queen Cersei which is not at all."  
Mirra smiled and took his arm and he laid his hand over hers.   
"Your wild hearts could get you both killed." Davvos said sounding resigned since he'd spent the entire voyage trying to convince them to dress down for her.   
"Our wild hearts won us the North and they are what will keep us the North." Mirra's voice was icy and resolute, she would change for no one. "The Dragon Queen is not our queen and we will never bow to her. She will bring war down on herself if she tries to force it." Jon smiled at the fire in her eyes but Davvos shied away. Jon's love might be northern through and through but her heart was made from an untouchable flame that would make her an amazing queen.


	17. DAY 17: Ornament

The royal palace in Denerim was decorated for Yule and it had never looked more beautiful than it did during the holidays. The ballroom which hardly got any use was the most beautiful of all and almost seemed to glow with all the ornaments on the trees and the tinsel that seemed to hang from anywhere Leliana's decorators thought was right. The entire party had been her idea after all. Corypheaus was defeated, had been for almost a year and all the Inquistion was doing was cleaning up all the messes that his Red Templars and Venatori had made of Thedas. Of course it had been Leliana's idea to throw a party and since work was being done in Skyhold, she wanted somewhere that would seem more friendly and less hostile, she chose Denerim and Mina and Alistair were happy to oblige and have the chance for our of their friends to meet their son, born 6 months ago.   
The ballroom was already full of people some from the Fereldan court and others from the Inquistion. Clea and Zevran had arrived a couple months ago from Antiva and been staying in the palace and fulfilling their duties as royal spymasters. They looked as stunning and intimidating as ever in their black and feathered formal wear. Amara and Cullen had come up from their estate in the Bannorn as well, Amara looking as just as graceful as ever even though she was visibly pregnant in her forest green gown and Cullen was beaming at her. Nyssa and Blackwall, correction, Thom Rainier had also made it from who knows where since they had been out traveling while he made amends for the things that he did. Their current residence was still skyhold. Thea and Fenris were here also, her hair much longer than it had been the last time they were all together and she looked exquisite in a blood red dress, her throat drapped with a heavy ornate necklace that reminded Mina of Morrigan. She missed the witch but doubted she would make an appearance here tonight.   
"This is better than I ever could have imagined!" Leliana crowed happily as she came up to Mina and Alistair where they stood admiring the room.  
"You did all of this, all we did was agree to host it." Mina laughed, bouncing Duncan on her hip causing him to giggle and reach for her long earrings. She adjusted his position so they were just out of reach.  
"I still never could have imagined it would turn out exactly how I pictured." Her eyes moved to the baby. "May I hold him?"  
"Of course. He's your family too after all we've been through." Alistair said before walking away to talk with Cullen and Amara. Mina smiled and handed over the small prince to one of her oldest friends. Young Duncan's bright blue eyes lit up as Leliana smiled and took him in her arms. He had his mother's eyes but his father's sandy hair and jawline. Clutched in his small fist was a star shaped ornament he must have ripped from one of the trees. He shook it for her and grinned from ear to ear even though it made no sound.   
"You will be a wonderful king one day with that personality." The spymaster said softly to him, holding a baby in her arms making her appear so much softer again like she used to in the days they all traveled together during the blight. "And you will be more loved than any baby ever could." She kissed his forehead lightly and bounced him slightly like his mother had been doing.   
Duncan laughed happily and shook the star ornament so more in answer.


	18. DAY 18: Misfit

Nyssa stood in the center of the large Skyhold training yard surrounded by warriors with swords and shields. She was supposed to be training them on the best way to avoid magic attacks. She still wasn't quite sure that she was the best person for this job considering the strange nature of her own magic, born of a lightning strike when she was young that left sunburst scars on both her palms and an affinity for lightning unmatched by anyone and more powerful that any that could be conjured by even the most powerful mage. Her eyes would spark purple with her lightning and she could hold the power to varying to degrees, from the smallest sparks she would weave between her fingers to huge bolts that could be used to bring down dragons. She thought asking her was dangerous for the soldiers cause even controlled, her power was immense. It caused her to be a bit of a misfit in her clan even though she was the Keeper's first.   
She smirked, the sparks jumping between her fingertips before she brought down a storm to surround her. She saw that the soldiers' eyes grew wide as they moved to block and protect themselves. She could see why she had been asked to train them in magical protection because they didn't know much. Cullen could walk them through the basics but without an actual mage to fight against they were still only ideas. Cullen and Amara were standing not far off observing the training. Amara had a wide grin on her face as she watched her older sister in her element.   
"I've never really seen her fight before, not up close anyway, this is incredible!" Cullen said crossing his arms as he watched.   
"This is nothing! You should see her in a real fight where she doesn't have to hold back at all." Amara said with admiration. She had never envied her sister's magic but had always been in awe of it.   
"Her magic, its different."   
"It happened when she was young and her powers were first starting to show. She was struck by lightning and it like stuck with her. I'm not sure the best way to really describe what happened. It's good that she is Dalish though, i don't think the circle would trust her kind of power." Her voice was fairly even but had a darker tone as well.  
"You're right, they wouldn't. I know Meredith would have made her tranquil even with her power under control. That woman could shake the world if she wanted to with power like that."  
"I think she will. I know my sister and she's in the right place for it after all." She lightly brushed her fingers down the side of his cape.   
"You're in the right place for that." He took her hand and kissed it before turning back to the fight where many soldiers had backed away from the elf sized thunderstorm and only a few remained.   
"You know, we are actually all like her in a way." Amara said as the last soldier yielded to Nyssa and the storm calmed around the victor.   
"How do you mean?" Cullen gave the signal to go again once Nyssa had drank plenty of water.  
"The entire Inquistion. We're all like Nyssa. None of us really fit in anywhere, we're all misfits in our own way and we just found our way here where none of us are misfits anymore."  
"I suppose you're right about that." Cullen chuckled warmly as she moved a bit closer to him to watch the show.


	19. DAY 19: Sling

The light felt way too bright to Amara as it streamed into what she assumed were her quarters. She hadn't opened her eyes in what felt like a very long time based on how hard it was to even crack them open. She was right; it was way too bright outside, middle of the day bright. "You're awake." Cullen exclaimed softly as her eyes opened, he moved from where he sat in her large armchair so as not to disturb her much needed sleep.   
"It feels like i've been trampled." She groaned as she tossed her right arm over her eyes.  
"What do you remember?" He asked tenatively.  
"I remember Solas and the council and... my arm..." And she tried not to tear up but she could feel it anyway.  
"Sweetheart, that was weeks ago. You don't remember Dagna at all?" He moved to sit beside her on the bed.  
"No, i don't." She tried as hard as she could to remember but nothing came to mind.  
"I need to show you something then." Cullen moved aside enough and lifted up her blanket and pulled it down to her waist. "I need you to look at this."  
"I know my arm is gone. I remember that part with Solus in the Eluvian."  
"Open your eyes sweetheart and look."  
Amara sighed and moved up so she was slightly leaning on her pillows and opened her eyes and saw two arms. Her right laying down at her side and left done up in a sling. "I don't understand." It was an arm but it wasn't her arm. It was intricate and beautiful, made of some kind of super light weight metal that she felt equaled the weight of her other arm. She could flex her fingers and they moved just the same. It was carved well and seemed organic in a way that it shouldn't. Lyrium ran through the entire thing in veins like those that had been embedded in Fenris's skin. She didn't understand how it stayed attached cause there was nothing to hold it on but there it was.   
"Dagna made that for you. She had been working on it nonstop since hearing what happened."  
"I've been asleep for weeks?!" The surprise in her voice showed but she was still too tired.   
"No, you've only been out for a few days. Dagna said that losing some recent memory could be a side effect of the lyrium and the surgery."   
"Lyrium, is that how she attached it?"  
"Partially. I didn't quite understand it all. It was some kind of enchantment combined with the lyrium and the arms design. You would have to ask her more about it and I know that she wants to tell you more about she did it and how it'll work but from what I understand of it, it'll work just like your own arm once you adjust to it."  
Amara moved the fingers on her new arm again, that was all she could move with it done up in a sling the way it was.  
"I'll be able to use it to fight? Just like my own?" She couldn't help the smile that came over her face. A mage might have been able to fight one handed a rogue couldn't.  
"That's what she claims."   
"Then when the hall can I get out of this bed and out of this sling? I wanna see what I can do."


	20. DAY 20: Tread

"They think that they're clever but they're not." Fenris chuckled as he rose up from where he knelt at the river bank looking at a jumbled set of footprints.   
Thea moved beside him, her black cloak billowing in the breeze as she moved. Her hand moved to her head to pull her hood back from where it was sliding off her head. Fenris was similarly garbed, it kept their very noticeable armor hidden away and made it much easier to hunt the slavers they so despised. This particular group they'd been following from some docks in northern Fereldan across the country down towards the forest lands past the Bannorn.   
"If they were clever they wouldn't be slavers. Most of Tevinter must know of us by now."  
"Oh I have no doubt about that but that wont deter them either. Tevinter runs on magic and slavery. They don't care that we hunt them, they will always send more."  
"Keeping us busy." They began to follow the tread marks, some with a heavy shuffling pattern as if by those in chains which neither of them doubted there were.  
"There is no place that I would rather be than hunting slavers at your side love."  
"Oh yeah? I can think of a few." Thea purred as she came up to his ear and lightly nipped it.   
"Well beyond that naturally." He laughed softly. The two of them maintained her family estate Kirkwall although they hadn't returned since deciding to leave about 6 months after Anders blew up the chantry. It was Merrill and Varric who kept it up now. Mostly Merrill since they told her to live there while they were gone. They had apartments as well in more than one capital city but none felt like home. They had talked about finding somewhere new to live once this had settled down. Maybe even building their own home but they hadn't found anywhere yet.   
"Do you think this will ever end?" They crossed the river using large stones that made a strange little path across.   
"Not unless the Imperium changes and it's been the same since the beginning." His voice wasn't angry just resigned and tired. He hardly ever sounded angry talking about it anymore, over the years that part had softened away into horrible acceptance. He still hated it but wasting anger on it was too tiring especially when he had someone who made him happy.  
"Until then there's us." She pulled her quarter staff from her back to be prepared as they came up a ridge on the other side of the bank.  
"They're close. We should get them once they enter the woods."   
"Best way to ambush." She spun the staff around in her hand while they skirted around to the forest to move along side the slavers until they could attack.   
Once far enough ahead they climbed a tree and waited. Invisible in the shadows and their black cloaks, both leaning on their weapons with their muscles poised to strike. It wasn't long before they had their chance. And it wasn't long before it was over. Slavers dead in pools of blood before they ever truly knew they were even under attack. Slaves cheered as their chains were cut and they were released and lead to the nearest town where they could return home. And all because of a couple who were really good at following tread marks.


	21. DAY 21: Treasure

"This is one of the reasons that being a pirate has always been worth it." Isabela kicked the chest open with her boot and coins and some jewelry spilled over the top. "Of course the sailing is amazing but this is the best perk."   
Clea and Zevran each picked up a handfull from the chest and let it all slip through their fingers before falling back in. Isabela sought them out on a whim when her voyages brought her to Antiva City again and she began to hear about the new leaders of the Antivan Crows. It screamed Zevran but with a new air of sophistication he hadn't had back when she had known him and she guessed that was Clea's influence.  
"Where did you get this?" He asked as he leaned against the railing on the dock.   
"I may or may not have taken it from some nasty Tevinter slavers on my way up here. But don't worry, they certainly won't be missing it or those poor people locked in their hold." Her grin was wicked when she crossed her arms over her chest. Now that she was a free woman with no debts owed to anyone, she could sail all she wanted and no one would come after her for taking their slaves. Well, Tevinter might but they also had their hands full trying to hunt down Fenris and Thea Hawke who kept taking out group after group without pause.   
"Good. Make them sweat." Clea smirked and shook her hair out in the breeze.  
"Did Fenris ask you to do it?" Zevran added, remembering the stories that Isabela had been telling them since coming into town.  
"Oh no. But it makes less for him and his lady wife to track down and they definitely appreciate it i'm sure. We write sometimes, but it's hard to find someone who is never home."  
"Or a pirate queen who is always out to sea." He teased.  
"Very true." She chuckled and closed the treasure chest before taking a seat on top of it instead. "You guys could come sailing with me for a time you know. Get your own treasure."  
The elves looked at each other a moment, each seeing how being a pirate could most definitely fit in with their lifestyle. "If we didn't have to run the Crows, it would be a very tempting offer." Zevran said with Clea's nod as affirmation.  
"Too bad. You don't know what you're missing out on." Isabela said as she patted the chest she was using almost like her pirate throne.  
"Next time Isabela, next time." Clea said.


	22. Day 22: Ghost

Mirra Stark stood atop the battlements of Winterfell watching Ghost pace back and forth before the front gate. Her long black hair was pulled back into a thick dragon braid with the sides snake braided against her skull and back behind her ears. Ironic she thought since the Dragon Queen herself, Daenarys Targaryen, stood on the same battlements watching her Dothraki train further out. Neither queen had spoken to each other too much once they all arrived in Winterfell, Mirra and Jon glad to be back in their own walls where they didn't feel like prisoners. Daenarys still wasn't happy with the fact that the northern king and queen refused to bend the knee to her and she finally only relented after weeks of counsel urging her that 6 kingdoms and peace were better than 7 that were ruined by war and the White Walkers. You need allies, they had told her, the north would be a good ally. You don't need them to be a part of your kingdom, they told her, but you need to be at peace with them. She had finally given in and allowed the dragon glass to be mined in its entirety before they all set sail back to Winterfell and the war with the White Walkers.   
Mirra highly doubted that Cersei would follow through on her promise to send aid to fight them, not with Danarys choosing to keep her crown and her and Jon keeping theirs as well. She knew that Cersei was hoping all 3 of them would die and leave her to rule Westeros in peace and deal with the White Walkers. Stupid woman. Mirra shook her head and laughed out loud. She had never thought of Queen Cersei as being smart or clever but this, ignoring the threat of the Night King, was beyond stupid. Even Dany had seen the need to end them first once she saw beyond the Wall.   
"What is so funny?" The fellow queen asked as she turned from her observation to look at Mirra who looked especially fierce with her hair pulled back that way and her obsidian crown of swords resting on her head.   
"Just thinking that Cersei isn't even half as clever as she thinks she is." Mirra turned as well, resting a black gloved hand on the stone before her and leaning against it.   
"She thinks herself her father's daughter is what Tyrion says and he also says that she is wrong." Dany stepped forward so it was easier for them to talk.   
"He's right about that. Tyrion was always Tywin's son in that regard, it's why he will make a good hand to the queen. He has a shrewd mind." Mirra tapped her brow.  
"And what of you? Who is your hand of the king?"  
"The North is not Westeros. We have no hand of the crown. Jon and I rule together and equally and take counsels from those close to us." She said, trying to calm the sense of pride in her voice, Dany had enough issues with them as it was, it didn't need to be made worse. Which it would be if she discovered Jon's secret. Tarygaryen. He wasn't Jon Snow or even Jon Stark despite what the lords and ladies had named him, he was Aegon Tarygaryen. Prince Rhagar's legitimate son by Lyanna Stark and the true and rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Neither of them wanted to rule Westeros, they only wanted their North but both highly doubted that Dany would care and figured she would probably turn them both to ash the moment the Night King was dead. Her husband was only Jon Stark as far as he was concerned and that's all he wanted to be. Technically that made her Targaryen as well since they were married and any children they had would also carry the blood of the dragon. She shuddered to think of what it would mean for them if the secret was known.   
"The north is very different. People here seem to dislike me." She continued not noticing the dark look that passed over the northern woman's face and made storms of her deep blue eyes.   
"They don't trust you." Mirra told her matter of factly. "Northerns don't trust outsiders. They don't understand us and we have a dark history anytime one is allowed among us in a position of power. You have to earn it, it isn't freely given simply because you are Queen of the Six Kingdoms."  
Dany pursed her lips a moment not saying anything.   
"The north has always been too wild for the rule of Kings Landing, we never should have been made to submit to them."   
"As long as you don't try to take more than the north and leave my people alone, i shall do the same for you. There will be peace between our nations." She finally said, reiterating what had been said the day it was agreed that the north would continue to rule itself.   
Ghost suddenly howled from where he now sat at the front gates and a chill ran down Mirra's spine at the sound of it. "Something is wrong. He never does that, except for once." Her mind instantly regressed back to the night that Jon died in the snow at Castle Black. She had to shake her head to rip away the image that sometimes still awoke her with a scream in the middle of the night even though Jon was right there, living at her side. "Get everyone inside. Now." She turned quickly on her heel and down the tower stairs out into the yard where Ghost moved to join her as everything else around them became a sudden bustle of activity.


	23. DAY 23: Ancient

"You can't be serious." Clea almost laughed at the story she had just heard.   
"I don't doubt the things she said and it makes some degree of sense given who she is and the things that she has done." Amara rationalized back at her, shaking her head whether in disbelief or Clea's reaction was unsure.   
Flemeth was Mythal. Or Mythal was somehow inside of Flemeth and a part of her now but either way. Flemeth was old, even Morrigan said as much. She had lived for centuries and had many many daughters in that time and was old enough to become a legend but Mythal, she was truly ancient. She was before Arlanthan and the immortality and true magic of the elves. She was one of their gods but what did that even mean anymore if she was inside another being.   
"I don't doubt that it makes sense, it just seems so unbelievable. Flemeth was already more powerful than we knew but this." Clea quickly shot back the rest of her ale and slammed the mug down as she looked at the faces around her, all elven save for Morrigan of course. Morrigan and Amara had been the only ones in the Eluvian with Kerin when all of this came to light and knew that it meant something, not just to the Inquistion but to the elves. It was the two of them, Clea, Nyssa, and Solas that sat around the table in Amara's personal quarters.   
"Not to mention the old god soul that she took." Nyssa tapped her fingernails on the wood. "Mythal is already a god, what could she want with the soul of one of the old tevinter gods?"  
"who's to say that they aren't somehow the same?" Morrigan added quietly, her mind spinning with all she learned from the Well of Sorrows. "The old gods of Tevinter and the elven gods."  
"Except that the elven gods were sealed away beyond the veil and tevinter's gods are buried in the earth and uncovered by darkspawn." Solas commented, not quite angrily but very much annoyed.  
"All of these gods. What even are they?" Clea returned with another mug of ale, her hearing allowing her to not miss a beat. "We have our gods, Tevinter has their old ones, the Avvar hold their own gods as well and there's the maker and Andraste. So they all exist?"   
"Likely so." Solas said back in his normal scholarly tone.  
"They could be spirits." Nyssa said carefully, wondering if her necromancy background made her think thus. "Powerful spirits that once belonged to powerful mages caught somewhere between spirit and human like Cole, making them godlike."  
"You think that Cole is godlike?" Her younger sister asked, half serious and half joking.  
"I didn't say that but I also see where that idea could come from. Someone who can do the things that he can do clearly isn't human but he also wouldn't be mistaken for a spirit either." She countered.  
"Cole is an anomaly. There aren't others like him, he's a spirit who felt so much he took on the traits of a living person." Solas said again crossing his legs.   
"Tis true. If there is one thing i know, it is that Flemeth has not died and Mythal didn't take on her essence. They are two seperate beings that are now one." Morrigan said darkly, hating the fact that the well bound to her to the one person in this world she actually hated.   
"And what are we supposed to do with this knowledge?" Clea asked bringing the conversation back around to the point they had started at. "She helped us before, with the blight and Hawke dealt with her in Kirkwell and she hasn't actively acted against us but how long will that last? What is her plan and what can we even do against her?" A throwing knife was out now and being punched into the table with each question she spoke.  
"She can't be any worse than Corypheus." Nyssa again.  
"Ha!" Morrigan leaned into the table. "You don't know my mother then."  
"Whatever she is, we still have to worry about Corypheus first and then we can decide what to do about Flemeth and what to tell the rest of the Dalish. All of the elves really. It could change everything." Amara remarked with a dreamy quality to her voice.   
"We might not want it to. It could be for the worse." Morrigan said with a far off gaze as if she was seeing into something that the others couldn't.


	24. DAY 24: Dizzy

"I've never been a big fan of heights." Mina shuddered as she shied away from the edge of a cliff in the Emprise du Lion.   
"You fought the Archdemon on the top of Fort Drakon!" Clea exclaimed   
"Yes and I was a little to preoccupied by said Archdemon to be afraid of how high up we were with no walls around us." She huffed.  
"You have to cross that bridge. Other people over there need our help." Amara stepped past them and continued on.   
"I know and I will, just need to catch my breath and settle my head. I feel very dizzy right now, like I'm going to pass out."   
Clea gave her knowing look as she sat beside her on the snow, not paying much attention to the cold. She allowed the rest of the party to pass them before she spoke again.  
"Mina, are you pregnant?"   
The look that Mina sent her way was one of utter shock. "How did you know?"  
Clea smiled knowingly and stretched her legs out. "You learn alot of things in the Dalish clans, everyone has to know things like that in case our healers aren't there. And I've known you 10 years now, I can tell when you're different. How far along are you?"  
"Not very, only a month I think. I'm almost 2 weeks late and I'm never late, even with the stress of the blight, you could keep time with my periods." Mina looked absently out across the empty expansion of air in front of them.  
"Does Alistair know?"   
"I told him this morning before we set out. He wanted me to stay but I had already committed to coming today." She smiled more to herself than to Clea. Her and Alistair had had issues conceiving an heir all these years. It was long thought that it was their Grey Warden blood that kept them from a baby but now that Mina had found a way to cure the Calling once a Warden's job was done, that was no longer an issue and it seemed that they had been taking advantage of their very nice and very private quarters in Skyhold.  
"I'm so happy for you!" Clea couldnt help but lean over and hug her friend. Kids weren't something that her and Zevran ever wanted for themselves but she had seen the sadness in Mina's eyes anytime it was brought up that they hadn't provided an heir for Fereldan yet. "You do know that Amara and Josephine won't let you out in the field again once they know."  
"I know. I'll tell them soon, once it's been a couple more weeks and I know for sure. This baby means as much to Fereldan as it does to Alistair and I."  
Clea nodded. "Good. I'll keep as much fighting from you as I can."  
"Not too much I hope." Mina teased as she stood up and rubbed her temples one time.   
"No, not too much." Clea laughed and stood as well and they began to walk towards the rest of their party at the end of the bridge.


	25. DAY 25: Tasty

"I still hate Orlais but this is one of the best cakes that I have ever eaten." Nyssa held a small plate in her hand full of said cake as she stood in the parlor of the Winter Palace talking to Iron Bull who was also more thrilled with the food than with the party itself.   
"Have you tried those candied nuts?" He said as he gestured to a half empty bowl to his right. "They're sweet but also spicy when you bite into them. It's like being kicked in the mouth!"   
"I've probably tried a little bit of almost everything in here." She laughed and didn't mind the strange looks she got from the Orlesian nobility. That had been happening all day anyway. She knew she looked exquisite in her deep purple dress but she was still elven and Dalish at that with her Vallaslin on full display. Amara was the Inquisitor so she had that going for her respect at least. People didn't quite so obviously stare at her and if they did there was always the excuse that she was the Inquisitor. No one had said anything to Nyssa but her hearing picked up brief comments behind the masks and fans. She much preferred the parlor to the ballroom where Amara and the other more high profile members of their group were kind of stuck in. She certainly didn't envy the king and queen especially. Clea and Zevran either but she also knew that more people seemed afraid of them than anything else and with their profession it would be much easier for them to disappear from the ballroom.   
As if on cue, Clea breezed into the room looking every bit the Crow Queen that she was. Some of the people who were standing near Iron Bull and Nyssa moved away from them subtlety as she approached. Any unknown Antivan nobles made them nervous. "Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?" She asked taking a sip from what looked like champagne in the glass she carried.  
"Besides everything?" Nyssa said swallowing another bite of cake. "The servants whisper urgently to each other and it doesn't sound like they're simply worried about running out of wine."  
"If the servants are infiltrators with Briala then it could appear that whatever she had planned is falling apart." Iron Bull added as he grabbed a drink from a nearby waiter.   
"My own people don't have much information to share. Briala's people know exactly who are hers and who aren't. It's been quite vexing."   
"Could we get into the servant's quarters?" Nyssa asked after a careful eye to make sure they weren't overheard.  
"That's what I'm trying to figure out cause I think that's where the answers are." Clea shifted her weight to her other hip as she finished her glass and set it down. "You haven't heard anything about this arcane advisor to Celene that Leliana is interested in?"  
"Not a peep. It's as if no one knows anything about her or people are too terrified to bring her up at all." Bull said holding another handful of candied nuts.   
"Likely it's both. People are afraid of what they don't understand and people don't understand the arcane." Nyssa volunteered drawing mostly from her own experience and how she knew that everyone viewed mages outside of the Dalish and the Tevinter Imperium.   
"I've got some ideas about that." Clea's green eyes sparked with mischief.  
This intrigued both Nyssa and Iron Bull but they both knew not to ask too much from the literal Queen of the Antivan Crows with so many ears about even if they were fairly certain that they wouldn't be overheard.   
"I should see if I can snag a moment with our dear Inquisitor and see what she wants to do. Enjoy the party." She smiled as she walked away, almost appearing to glide along the floors. It was no wonder that she and her husband had managed to take over the Crows themselves and rebuild.   
"In the meantime-" Iron Bull passed a glass to Nyssa and toasted to her. "We do still have some treats we haven't tried yet."


	26. DAY 26: Dark

Thea Hawke opened her eyes to pitch blackness and just about panicked. Going blind or deaf were some of her greatest fears besides losing Fenris. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she looked around and saw nothing. Her hands went to her face and she made sure that her eyes were open. Suddenly a soft blue light began to glow to her right and she turned to find Fenris awake and starring at her with concern in his eyes.   
"What's wrong love?" He reached a hand out to her and rested it on her thigh.   
"I thought I had gone blind, there was nothing but darkness." The comforting blue glow came from Fenris's lyrium veins which glowed brightly when he used his abilities and only very softly when he was awake, when he was asleep it was like they don't exist.   
"Can you see me?"   
"Yes i can and your face is even more beautiful now." She moved closer to him, taking comfort in his presence to calm her pounding heart.   
She looked around again and this time able to take in small details of the room they were in. "When I asked for curtains to keep out the sun I didn't think they would be so good at it." She leaned over and found a match and lit the candle on their bedside table, the warm glow from the fire chasing away the darkness around them.  
"No doubt that Dagna did something magical to them." His voice was tired as he leaned back into the pillows and took her in his arms. "We would have been better off asking Josephine."  
Thea settled her head down on his chest and traced one of her fingertips over a lyrium vein in his chest. He had gotten used to her touch even like that in the years that they had been together, now he welcomed it. "I'll have to have her fix whatever she did to them cause I can't keep waking up like this, its disorientating. Like being in a prison." A chill ran down her spill at the thought and she shook it away.   
They had only been in Skyhold for a couple of weeks and it still felt strange. Cassandra had been looking for them for a long time, looking for her to lead the Inquisition to end the mage and templar war and now there is something even worse that they have to fight. Cassandra still gave them both the cold shoulder, even though it was mostly Varric who kept her from ever finding them, she still somewhat held to the idea that Thea Hawke should have done something since it was Anders who started the war even thought it was Fiona who held the vote that disbanded the Circles.   
"I know what you mean. It's not uncommon for slaves to sleep thus."  
"I'm sorry Fen."  
He kissed her head. "Don't be. It isn't your fault and it's not my life any longer. I never wake in darkness as long as I'm with you."  
She smiled and placed a hand against his cheek as she leaned up to kiss him. "Never again." She then bit his bottom lip softly before releasing it. "As long as we're awake for a bit though," Her hand wondered below the sheets and along his inner thigh to his penis which she found already ready to go.  
"I was thinking just the same thing." His grin was wicked as he rolled over on top of her and slid his tongue into her mouth.


	27. DAY 27: Coat

Ygritte an Cathala O Hawkehold sighed as she looked out over the forest from where she was perched high up on a tree branch. The large hawk that was their hold beast sat on top of her shoulder, eyes just as vigilant as hers. She tried to keep her head in the hunt but it wandered. Fenris stood below her in the shadows of another tree. He had finally had proper Avvar attire made for him to suit the mountain cold. The leather boots he hated but still understood the necessity of them in the snow. The coat they had made for him looked very fitting all furs of white and grey and leather of a deep slate color from a large great bear. It fit him well but still allowed him to move properly in the light mail underneath it. Proper Avvar craftsmanship as always.   
She found that happening alot, her thoughts drifting to their new member of their clan. And not only because he was somewhat her responsibility as she was the one who rescued him. He was a member of her hunting party and he also served under Aveline, helping to train their fighters. That had taken some negotiation and convincing on Ygritte's part to get him to do it but he finally agreed, mostly cause he knew he had a duty to the clan that saved his life and opened their doors to him. He was very attentive in both of his new postions. Ygritte's bright teal eyes found themselves looking down at Fenris again, his white hair almost helping him to blend more with the snowy forest.   
The hawk abruptly flew off from the hunter's shoulder and let out a cry as he soared to the north, whether cause he sensed something or simply grew bored of waiting she didn't know. She brought her finger to her lips and whistled her call to end the hunt as nothing had been found and it had been hours so far. She moved effortlessly down the branches and dropped the last several feet to the ground landing like a cat with hardly any sound at all.   
Fenris turned to her and pulled his large hood back up over his head. "We're heading back already?"  
"There is nothing to be found here today unfortunately. Sometimes that happens. The others would have signaled us, similar to how I did if they had found something. That's what happened the day they found you in the snow." The pair began to walk back in the direction of Hawkehold. "I still have to teach you the various calls, but not out here with other hunters around to confuse. When we get back to the hold I'll teach you in my home."   
He looked away from her and towards the mountains ahead of them. Fenris had been staying with Carver for the time being while he had his own hut built. Carver wasn't thrilled but the build team was fast and it should be done soon. They had already been working for a few weeks, since the day that it was decided that Fenris would stay with them in the hold. Most of his time he spent with Ygritte or Carver or Aveline, learning the ways of his new people and adjusting to his new life. "It's been a long time since I've whistled anything, since I was with the Fog Warriors."  
She looked over at him. "Fog Warriors? Aren't they from Secheron?"   
"Indeed. They're similar to your people more so than any other. Things would have been different if I could have remained with them." His voice sounded melancholy as he spoke. "Danarius made me kill them all once he found me."  
Ygritte said nothing for a moment but the set in her jaw said everything. "I'm sorry Fenris."  
"As am I. It took me a long time to deal with that, what he made me do, the fact that I did it." He pulled his hood further up on his head and seemed to try and tighten his coat around him against the cold or the memory Ygritte couldn't be sure but she guessed it was a mix of both.   
"Never again." She assured him, resting a hand against his arm for a moment before dropping it back to her side. "I promise."


	28. DAY 28: Ride

Mirra stood with her hand in her husband's near a cliff on Dragonstone watching as Daenary's flew in on Drogon. The beasts both frightened and awed her. They were beautiful in the way that they flew and the sweeping elegance of their movements. They were also the most terrifying thing she had ever seen besides the Night King and his massive army of the undead. The other 2 dragons flanked the Dragon Queen on either side, neither Viserion or Rhagal quite as big as their brother but still equally as terrifying. The grace with which all 3 massives creatures landed before them was shocking.   
Dany dropped down from Drogon's back and walked over to them, a large smile on her face. "The only children that I shall ever have and the only children that I'll ever need."   
"What about an heir?" The question slipped from Mirra's lips before she had much time to think about it, she was focused more on the dragons before her. Rhagal seeming quite curious about Jon as he inched slightly closer, his nostrils flared as they smelled him.  
Dany turned her purple gaze on the Northern Queen, not angry though surprisingly. "For a proper heir, I would require a husband which I don't plan on taking. And even if I did, I would bear an heir to my throne. A witch cursed me thus when she took away my husband. I will name an heir when the time comes to spare the land another war on who will succeed me but there will never be one of my blood. I am the very last Blood of the Dragon."  
"I'm sorry, we didn't know." Mirra said looking sadly at the younger woman. Her and Jon hadn't been married very long and hadn't been trying to produce an heir of their own in that time because of the upcoming war with the Night King but at least as far as they knew, neither of them were barren.   
"It's alright. Why would you have? No one really does." She stroked Drogon's head and the large dragon closed his eyes.  
Rhagal had moved significantly closer to Jon who now held out a hand to touch him if the dragon would permit it. Mirra looked to them with her eyes wide and the conversation with Daenarys temporarily forgotten for the moment. Rhagal moved his hand and pressed it against Jon's outstretched hand and huffed a breath against him. Jon couldn't help but smile in amazement as he ran his bare hand over the Dragon's snout while Rhagal positioned himself lower.  
"He wants you to ride him." Dany said in awe while she looked on.   
"Are you sure?" Jon asked her, his hand still against the head.  
"They are my dragons. He will keep you safe. I'll join you." Dany moved around Drogon and climbed up on his back again.  
Jon watched her carefully and did the same with Rhagal except he held his hand out to his wife once he was safely aboard. Mirra looked to Dany who nodded and grabbed Jon's hand. Once she was also safely up and had her arms wrapped around her husbands waist and he had a careful hold of the dragon's spines, Dany signaled for them to take off and both dragons ran and jumped off the cliff, wings spread wide to catch the air and carry them high.   
Mirra thought that riding Shadow was the truest definition of flying but she had been so incredibly wrong. The laugh that escaped her lips was pure bliss. She wanted to throw her arms wide but she knew that she couldn't, that was something that she didn't do even with Shadow. Instead she rested her chin on Jon's shoulder and landed a kiss on his neck. He turned to smile at her before he too laughed in delight. Rhagal flapped his wings and carried them higher and higher, following his larger brother and his mother high into the skies above the sea below them.   
"I don't understand this but it's amazing." She said into Jon's ear hoping that he would actually hear her.   
To ride a dragon was the most miraculous thing that she had ever done. And for two people who weren't even of Dragon blood to be able to do it was even more so. Now she knew why this was truly the only way that Dany chose to travel and truly fearsome she would be when she came face to face with Cersei Lannister on Drogon's back.


	29. DAY 29: Injured

"That bastard really stabbed me!" Clea seethed as she wiped her own wicked blade over her black pants cleaning off the blood from slitting the man's neck. The man's own dagger was embedded in her left forearm where he'd wedged when she made to carry out his execution. "Clever bastard." She pulled his blade from her arm and tossed it beside his body which now lay slumped on the floor.   
"Did you really think he'd submit to your judgement? He views himself as a proper head of the Crows." Zevran asked her stepping away from the blood that moved towards his feet.  
"No, but i thought our own people would have checked him better for weapons." She tore a piece of the mans tunic to wrap her arm and stop the bleeding for the time being, until they could make it back to their own safehouse anyway to bandage it properly.   
"We might not want to know where he stashed that." Zevran said with a shudder and a chuckle while Clea finished wrapping her arm.  
"Yeah most likely not. We all need to be more careful then from now on. We have to weed them all to have any hope of rebuilding the way that we want to." Clea pulled her heavy black hood over her head casting her face into shadow and Zevran did the same.  
They headed back out the same high window that they had used to drop in on the man in the first place. It was rooftops that they used as they moved about Antiva City, right under the noses of the very people that they were here to kill, those same people that were hunting them all over Thedas with no clue that they resided in their own city. The thought brought a wicked grin to her face as she moved quickly in the shadows, like a ghost that she would later come to be known as. Zevran already known as The Black Shadow from his own infamous work with the guild.   
The building that they dropped into was unassuming and easily missed by anyone on the street, it was nothing special and it was cared for enough but too much to garner notice. The inside, however, was lavish. Paid for money the pair had received from both the Fereldan crown and Clea's salary as Warden Commander which was substantial. She no longer held the title as she had passed it on the Nathanial Howe when they had decided to leave for Antiva to hunt down the Crows and rebuild the order.   
Clea stripped from her bloody clothes in their master bathroom and climbed into a tub that was already waiting for her full of hot water and oils and salts to calm her skin. Zara's doing no doubt. There was a reason that Clea and Zevran considered her to be their most loyal and next in command. She hung her arm over the side of the tub and unwrapped the make shift bandage allowing the blood to drip to the floor rather than dirty her bath water.   
"Allow me." Zevran said with a smile as he sat down on a stool beside her, naked himself, and set a tray of medical supplies off to the side.   
"You're too good to me." She sighed with her head back and her green eyes on him.  
"You deserve it." He kissed her palm before using a clean wet cloth to wash away the clotted blood from the wound. His hands were fast and delicate and his work was good. She gritted her teeth as he poured alcohol over her arm to clean it and disinfect.   
"I've suffered worse with less medical care before you know." She teased him as he set the bottle aside and picked up a needle and thread to close her arm.   
"As have I but now we don't have to." He began to carefully stitch up her arm, keeping his sutures even and well spaced to allow for the best healing possible.   
"Who knew a born assassin could have such a gentle hand?" She slipped further into the tub, allowing it to do its work on her muscles.  
"It's because I've been trained since childhood that I can do this. An assassin must have a delicate hand sweetling." He finished his stitching and picked up a clean linen bandage and wrapped it tightly around his handiwork to keep it clean. "Perfect." He set her arm down on the side of the tub and stood up. "Now move over."  
Clea smiled and moved forward so he could slip into the bath behind her before she settled back against his chest. "I never tire of this." She said as his hand slid over her thigh.  
"And you never will." He teased with his tongue sliding over the length of her pointed ear. "But keep that arm above the water."


	30. DAY 30: Catch

"You've got to be kidding me!" Amara said completely in shock as she pulled another throwing knife from her stack and flung it at Clea on the other side of the yard.   
The assassin caught it midair without even a cut to her hand. "It's taken a long time for me to get this fast." She dropped the blade into a basket at her feet.   
"Can you teach me that?" The Inquisitor had already learned alot about stealth and deadly strikes from the pair of assassins but she knew she wouldn't be able to catch a knife midair, let alone without a scratch on her. Clea truly did move like a ghost.   
"I can." She laughed lightly and picked up the basket and carried it back over to Amara. "But it will take a tremendous amount of focus and practice. Especially to be able to do it in battle and not just standing still."  
"You can do that in a fight?!" Her eyes were wide to match the pitch of her voice.  
"Not quite as well but yes I can. It's as useful as you might think, most enemies don't just throw knives at you. I can grab arrows too depending on their speed. They're much harder to gauge than a knife."   
Clea had been asked by Amara to show her more about being an assassin, or rather more moves and tricks that would give her an edge out on the battlefield against anything they might come across. Most of Clea's own training was quite heavy on stealth attacks and deadly one hit strikes and speed. Even Zevran sometimes had trouble keeping up with her with they would spar. Her small size was the main contriubuter to that. She didn't have as much weight to move and being a hunter for the Dalish had demanded a speed that most other rogue's couldn't match simply because they had never had to learn how to do it. It would be much easier to teach a fellow Dalish hunter the speed she now had as a Crow. Zevran had learned well but he couldn't compete with her once he had taught her all of his tricks.   
"I'm ready to learn." Amara pulled the elf from her thoughts and back into Skyhold's courtyard.   
"Let's go then." Clea's grin was playful and wicked as she picked a blade up from the basket and backed up a couple large steps. "Cullen better not come find me later demanding what happened to your pretty face."  
"He knows I can handle my own." Amara teased back jumping to the side as Clea threw the knife at her with lightning quickness. It happened so fast she had even forgotten that the lesson was supposed to be how to catch the blade and not how to avoid being hit by it.   
"Shouldn't you warn her once the lesson starts?" Thea laughed from the level above, leaning on her quarterstaff as if it wasn't a deadly weapon.  
"That would defeat the point of learning." Clea pulled another knife but this time lobbed it at the Champion of Kirkwall instead and was pleased to see that she deflected it with her wrist with expert ease, the blade falling down at the woman's feet instead of embedding itself in her shoulder. "Glad being Viscount didn't make you soft."  
"Hunting slavers keeps you on your toes." Thea leaped over the ledge and rolled to a stop level with the other women.   
"Things are about to get significantly more interesting." Amara observed once Thea sheathed her weapon and pulled a knife from the basket as well.


	31. DAY 31: Halloween

"This is quite possibley the worst thing I've ever smelled." Alistair managed to choke out while he held a handkerchief to his mouth and nose to try and keep the rotting smell out.  
"Very.... ripe indeed." Zevran shuddered finding the right word as he too covered his face.  
"This isn't any worse than the deep roads." Mina moved ahead through the tower carefully, blades at the ready.   
"Maybe not but demons smell like sulfur and decay and there's also all this old blood." Alistair said back. Darkspawn were their own sort of bad smell but they didn't quite smell like decay, they just smelled wrong and evil, if evil had a smell. The Tower of Magi smelled like hundreds of things had died in it and been unleashed and he supposed that they had with the state of the place. Dead mages and templars lay everywhere, some demons too, just further evidence of all that had gone wrong here recently. They hadn't come across too many living demons and abominations yet but they were also still only on the first level of the tower, most of it still being apprentice dormitories.   
"It's confining times like these that I miss the forest." Clea sidestepped an apprentice body, careful not to disturb it any way.   
"It's only going to get worse." Wynne didn't like being the bearer of bad news but knew that her new companions needed to be prepared for what they were about to be up against. "It started on some of the higher levels. What happened down here is nothing compared to what's up there and i didnt even see the worst of it i know."  
"We're ready. We've killed plenty of demons so far." Clea spun her daggers in her palms, if there was one thing she never tired of it was killing things. And sex. And good liquor.   
"Abominations are different. You must be wary at all times. Sometimes they can still look human, hiding, biding their time." Wynne's voice was very somber. She knew what had become of some of her friends and pupils, even those who didn't become abominations were cut down by those belonging to Uldred's group who wanted a new world order, those who were willing becoming abominations.  
"She's right." Alistair again, thinking back to his Templar training. "Some are better at staying hidden, knowing that's the best way that they can live. When it happens in the Circle, its easy for the trained mages and the templars to notice. But still, they can be difficult to spot."  
"Kill all the demons and other beasties and leave the civilians alone." Zevran said with more cheer forced into his voice than he really felt. "Easy enough."  
"Keep your guard up." Mina said as they came to a staircase to take them on to the next floor. "Let's go liberate some survivors."


End file.
